by Karen Anders
He flexed and her eyes jerked back to his face. He smiled wickedly for her benefit, but the anger smoldered inside him like a burning ember deep in his gut.
“Sam, what is that heart-shaped tattoo you have over your heart?” she said, her voice uneven with her pain, and he clenched his teeth, then tried to relax for her benefit.
“It’s the periodic table’s chemical symbol for iron, Fe.”
“Ironheart?”
He nodded. “Hooyah,” he said.
“Okay, there was some cloth in there from your shirt, but I think I got everything,” Lucy said. “I’m going to rinse it out with hydrogen peroxide and it’s going to sting a bit. Are you ready?”
Olivia tightened her hand around his and he kept his gaze steady on hers. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Lucy tuck a towel under her arm and pour.
Olivia made a small gasp, but she kept her eyes on his. Their communication was silent, powerful and absorbing. His breathing slowed and she followed in sync and her face smoothed as if the pain receded and all that remained was their connection.
“That wasn’t so bad,” Lucy said, patting Olivia’s arm dry, then picked up a tube of antibiotic ointment and dabbed it on. “I want you to watch her for the first twenty-four hours. If she gets feverish, she’s got an infection.”
“Do you think that will happen?”
“No. I think I got it cleaned out really well. But change the dressing before she goes to bed and again in the morning. The bullet grazed her, so she’s got some major swelling, but that should recede. Ice will help when you get her home.”
“Thank you, Lucy,” Olivia said.
“Sam, can I talk to you for a second? We’ll be right back.”
Olivia closed her eyes and nodded, resting her head against the couch.
Lucy led the way out to the kitchen.
“Sam, what do you think this is about?”
“I don’t know.”
“Sam...”
“I don’t know, Lucy! Believe me, if I knew who shot Olivia...”
“Okay, I believe you, but I’m really concerned here. Why can’t you go to the police? You were the ones who got attacked.”
“I can’t trust them, Lucy. That’s all I can say.”
“Surely, Thad—”
“No, I trust Thad.”
“Is she any relation to Dr. Owens?”
“Yes. She’s his sister.”
She reached out. “I know that we don’t know each other that well and you’re dealing with so much, but Thad and I are here for you.”
“Thank you, Lucy. That means a lot.”
“Does this have anything to do with Mike?”
“I’m not sure.” Sam lowered his voice. “I think what happened to Mike wasn’t an accident, but I have no proof.”
“All right, Sam, just be careful. I’m sure I can find you a shirt to put on before you leave.”
“Thanks, Lucy.” He squeezed her arm, turned and walked back into the living room while Lucy disappeared upstairs.
Sam stood there, the anger he’d kept in check threatening to boil over. It scored his gut, mixing in with the unadulterated terror that had run through him like a virus.
Lucy came back down and handed him one of Thad’s T-shirts.
“Bathroom,” he gritted out.
She pointed to the right. “I’m headed off to work, so just pull the door closed when you’re done. It was nice to meet you, Olivia.”
“You, too, Lucy. I’m just sorry it was under these circumstances.”
Sam went inside the bathroom and washed off the blood. His got angry all over again and that fear for her safety that was still heavy in his gut only made his anger intensify. He’d banked it for the sake of comfort when she was being stitched up, but now he couldn’t contain it. After pulling on the T-shirt, he strode toward the couch. Olivia was sitting up, and when her eyes met his and she saw the blaze of anger he couldn’t hide, she looked immediately mutinous.
“Don’t start, Sam.”
“Don’t start? I warned you something like this was going to happen! I told you it was dangerous to be around me! Now you’ve been hurt. It’s not bad enough that I got your brother killed... Dammit!”
“Stop it. This isn’t your fault! How many times do I have to tell you that?”
“I take responsibility for my actions!” He was beyond pissed. More so because she could have taken a fatal bullet instead of the minor wound on her arm. His gut clenched at the idea that there was even a scratch on her beautiful skin.
“Of all the pigheaded, stubborn jackasses...!” Her eyes were furious, and he had a feeling most of her reaction was adrenaline. She knew the score.
“Name-call all you want, but you know I’m right!” He scoffed. She got in his face then, and his breath caught. She was lucky the bullet had missed anything vital. He shuddered thinking what could have happened if the guy who dragged her away from him had gotten her into that van.
“I’m sure you think you’re always right!” She shoved at his chest with her good hand, but he wasn’t budging. He liked it right here close to her where he could feel her intensity, take in all her wrath and sputtering and anger. That suited him just fine—it meant she was alive. The brown lights in her eyes, the heat of her skin, the warmth of that mouth looked so inviting. Her caramel hair slid down around her flushed face. Suddenly he was totally, utterly distracted.
He wanted to feel her up against him again.
“I am always right!”
She shoved him again, but it had no effect. Her brown eyes flashed, and he knew it was really messed up that he couldn’t get enough of feeling her fire. He loved the way she stood up to him.
“Jackass!” she yelled. “You are pushing all my buttons!”
“I’m pushing your buttons! Honey, you have no idea how many of my buttons you’re pushing right now.” He crowded her back until she was against the wall.
“What buttons? Because everything is your fault. Are you going to take the whole world on your shoulders as if I’m not in control of my own actions? I make my own decisions and I’m the one responsible for them!”
“Dammit!” He ran his hands through his hair. “Unbelievable! Are you under the impression the guys that tried to kidnap you are run-of-the-mill guys who cheat on their wives?”
She narrowed her eyes. “Don’t denigrate my work, Sam!”
He just stared at her, speechless. He closed his eyes, trying to breathe around her beauty and his attraction to her. Everything in him was primed to protect her with his bare hands if need be. Didn’t she get it? She looked so warm and alive. Her mouth so soft. The curve of her jaw so tantalizing. Her cheeks, the silky fall of her hair against her throat were he wanted his mouth. He planted his hands on his hips to buy time to get a grip, but his chest just grew tighter. She was so female, she had to bring out every primal instinct in any man who looked at her. Including him. Especially him. He wasn’t civilized. He was Uncle Sam’s honed weapon and he had cut his teeth in firefights she couldn’t even imagine seeing let alone live through. Rough, coarse and brusque. He didn’t know how to handle this direct woman.
She was down-to-earth, courageous and made his blood rush in his veins, and he was having a hard time resisting her, for Chrissake. He realized he should. Hell, he didn’t even know her, and whether she thought so or not, it wasn’t prudent for her to get to know him—he was a moving target. He was contrary, gave out orders and expected them to be followed. That’s the way he marched. Even on a good day he was difficult. Here she was embroiled in this cluster of his all because he happened to choose her brother as his therapist.
They didn’t have a damn thing in common.
Except the instense burning attraction they had for each other. “No, offense, Olivia, but your work
is a walk in the park where these guys are concerned. They must have wanted us alive or they would have tried to take us both down.”
Her eyes filled with tears and he swore vehemently under his breath. Great, now he had scared her and made her cry. He was a jackass!
“I know all this!” she shouted, obviously insulted. “It doesn’t change anything! Not a damn thing. I have no intention of leaving you alone.”
“That’s exactly the problem!” he bellowed back. They stood there for a few minutes, both breathing hard.
“Too bad!”
“Dammit, Olivia! Can’t you see that I don’t want anything to happen to you? That I want you safe? That’s all I want right now. You safe.”
“I will be safe. With you!”
“No, you won’t!”
She twined her hands in his shirt. “If you think yelling at me and barking orders is going to change my mind, it isn’t!”
He made her back up and realized she had her hand in a death grip on his shirt. “You are the toughest, most direct pain in the ass!” He’d stepped into the kill zone where he could smell her scent, feel her heat, and his worry for her safety, his attraction to her, just swamped him. His resolve broke at nothing more than her soft exclamation and her small fist twisting tighter.
He swore softly, and he couldn’t ever remember doing that before when he’d wanted a woman this much. Without warning he dropped his mouth on hers, his kiss hard, a bit out of control. She tasted hot and comforting and so sweet. Something indescribable and irresistible overtook him. Whether it was a part of his nature or his reaction to the taste of Olivia, he didn’t know. He couldn’t find his balance, and that sent him even more off the deep end. He had to have her. He pressed into her, and her response tightened everything in his body.
A low sob broke against his mouth, and he shoved his hands into her hair. The strands were soft against his fingertips, against his hands and wrists, jacking up his breathing and the fierceness of his mouth sliding over her lips.
The scent of her, like the grass and flowers, a force of nature, was like oxygen, giving him energy and life. Now that he’d breathed her deeply into him, he wasn’t sure he could do without it.
He gently cradled her head so that he could take her mouth in a sizzling, hungry and ravaging way. Locking her arms around him, she yielded, melting against him, her hands curving over his scalp, loving the heat of her hands there, trailing fire over the nape of his neck. Her touch drove him wild.
Widening his stance, Sam dragged her up against his groin, which was so hard he ached. He forgot where he was. Forgot who he was and just sank into the sensation of her.
He was so damn crazy, he told himself. Why did this woman affect him so much? Their chemistry whispered along his skin, tingling in his nerve endings. The sensation made him hot-blooded, explosive.
He gave himself up to the can’t-help-himself feeling. He was in deep kimchi. Just like that, she disarmed him before he could even draw down on her.
Chapter 7
The kiss was as good as the first one. Better. She welcomed this primal side of Sam, inhaling his hot, male scent, the way he could so easily lose control with her.
How could a man’s mouth be this soft and pliant? She ran her hand down his throat to his collarbone, reversing her fingers to caress the satin skin on his chest beneath the neckline of the T-shirt. He might feel like velvet, but he was definitely hard in all the right places.
She opened her mouth for him, inviting him to take her. He tightened his hold on her face and stroked his thumbs along her jaw. When his tongue touched hers, she groaned and he sucked on her bottom lip, igniting a fire that coursed through her bloodstream.
She was well aware why Sam was so jacked up—adrenaline, fear and his need to protect her, which had made him act like such an asshole. She understood.
And even as she fought with him, her heart was melting and melding with those needs in him.
It wasn’t that she wasn’t scared. She was. Out-of-her-mind scared. But she couldn’t, wouldn’t back down in the face of that fear. Sam needed someone. Whether he wanted to admit it or not, she was going to be that someone. Without her, he would be alone in this. She was well aware that he would not involve his family. He was already an uptight, angry, frustrated man right now. What would he do without someone to help him get through this? At the very least, she could protect his back. She had no intention of being caught off guard like that again.
He took a deep, uneven breath and broke the kiss, resting his jaw and head against the hollow between her shoulder and neck.
He growled as he stepped away from her. “You drive me crazy.”
He gave her a long, heated look. It made her a little sick to think about how much blood had soaked into his T-shirt. Lucy had told her to take it easy, so no wonder she was feeling a bit light-headed. Or it could have been Sam’s kiss. She wasn’t sure.
“Are you ready to go?”
She nodded.
Back in the truck, he still didn’t say anything. It was as if he’d been drained after the argument and then that mind-blowing kiss. Olivia didn’t want to set him off again, erring on the side of caution, so she kept her mouth shut.
Once he pulled into the garage, he zipped around the truck to help her out. She didn’t protest too loudly; her arm was hurting a bit.
When he saw the grimace on her face, he said, “I have pain reliever.”
“That sounds good. Thank you.”
He reached in and snagged her laptop. She lost her balance, feeling a bit woozy, and he caught her against him. Setting the laptop on the hood of the truck, he slipped his arms under her legs and picked her up.
“We didn’t get a chance to get to the market, and I barely have anything here for you to eat. Need to get something into you.”
“Do you have eggs?”
He brightened. “I do. I’ll scramble us some as soon as I get you situated on the couch.”
“While you’re doing that, bring me the laptop. I need to check my brother’s database, but after seeing that they wiped my drives, I don’t hold out hope that the database will be untouched. Also, I’ll see if there are any messages from the company about my deleted drive.”
He set her down on the couch and dashed back out to the garage for her laptop, then went into the kitchen.
Olivia booted up her computer and accessed her email. Sure enough, there was a message from them. They were able to recover only a few files from the past two days, which worked fine because those were the surveillance photos she’d taken of Sam the day before her brother had been murdered.
With a sinking heart, she accessed her brother’s therapist database. When she looked for Sam’s file, it wasn’t there. It had totally been erased. Damn those bastards!
Sam came back into the room with two plates of eggs and some toast. He set one plate down on the coffee table beside her laptop and settled on the couch next to her so he could see the screen. “Any luck?”
“Yes, I was just about to bring up the photos, but no on the database. They erased your electronic file. I’m sorry, Sam.”
He looked so disappointed, but nodded his head. Sam then leaned forward to look at the photos shook his head. “I can’t believe I didn’t notice you.”
“You were preoccupied and just got out of a session with my brother. I’m sure you had a lot on your mind. At least, that’s what I thought when I saw you and took these pictures.”
She scrolled through them, and then she saw him. “There, that’s the man who tried to drag me into the van.”
“You saw his face?”
“Yes, his mask got pulled off when I tried to get away.”
“Dammit. I’m sure that’s going to make them nervous.”
“Is there any way we can find out who this guy is?”
“I could talk to my brother, Thad. He works for the Raleigh Police Department. He’d be discreet.”
“I thought you didn’t want to involve the police. We’ll have to be very careful who we confide in.”
“My brother is trustworthy, but he might be difficult. Since he’s a cop, he thinks he can save the world and he won’t like it to find out we’re both in danger and not do anything about it.”
“Sounds like that runs in the family,” she muttered under her breath.
He didn’t look at all apologetic. “Eat, and if you want, we can argue some more later.”
She sighed. “I don’t want to argue with you, Sam.”
“You could have fooled me.”
“You were the one... Oh, never mind.”
She picked up the plate and dug into the eggs. Sam had already finished eating and he took his plate back to the kitchen, disappeared down the hall and brought back aspirin and water.
“Thanks,” she said, taking them out of his hand.
“I don’t like it, Olivia. I know that you’re not going to back down and I can’t take the risk...we can’t take the risk that they’ll try to snatch you again.”
“We should put our energy into trying to figure this out, rather than fighting each other.”
“And we’ve come full circle. I don’t know how to unlock what’s in my head. I don’t know what caused me to lose my memory. But at Lucy’s house I had a memory return to me when Mike and I were taken. It was an ambush. They were waiting for us and they drugged Mike and I and killed the other two S.F. guys. We were targeted and there were only a few people who knew about that mission. The four of us, some tactical guys and my commanding officer with probably a couple CIA guys also in the know.”
She bit her lip. “So we don’t know if we can even trust your commanding officer?”
“No. We don’t.”
“Do you remember anything about your captivity?”
“Not much, but my injuries say it was completely brutal. I don’t know if I even gave up anything to them at this point. All I remember is bits and pieces—a lot of beatings and continuous pain, thirst, hunger, cold. Sensations really.”